1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of rolling finished sections from a preliminary section by means of a reversing rolling stand arrangement. The rolling stand arrangement forms a compact rolling stand group which includes a first universal stand on an entry side, a second universal stand on an exit side and an edging stand arranged between the two universal stands. An edging stand is arranged in front of the compact rolling stand group. The preliminary section is a section which arrives from a continuous casting plant and has increased thickness portions at both ends of a web corresponding to the later finished section. The dimensions of the preliminary section are adapted to predetermined dimensions, such as, web height, web thickness and/or flange width, of the finished section to be rolled in such a way that the preliminary section is either introduced directly into the first universal stand of the compact rolling stand group and is then finish-rolled in the compact rolling stand group into the finished section having the predetermined dimensions, or, prior to the introduction of the preliminary section into the first universal stand of the compact rolling stand group, the preliminary section is subjected to a reducing rolling in a rolling unit arranged immediately in front of the compact rolling stand group in order to achieve different dimensions deviating from the original determination of the web height, web thickness and/or flange width of the finished section to be finish-rolled in the compact rolling stand group.
2. Description of the Related Art
Starting from the finding that a preliminary section arriving from a continuous casting plant and directly introduced into the compact rolling stand group only permits a limited number of finished sections of different dimensions to be rolled from the preliminary section, it has already been proposed in EP-A-265 757 to roll finished sections with significantly larger final dimension differences from a single unchanged initial continuously cast section in one and the same compact rolling stand group by subjecting the preliminary section to a reducing rolling in an edging stand arranged immediately in front of the compact rolling stand group, for example, by acting on the web-like portion or the flange-like increased thickness portions of the preliminary section, and subsequently introducing the preliminary section into the compact rolling stand group. This made it possible to either shorten the web-like portion of the preliminary section by upsetting or edging, or to increase the web-like portion possibly with the inclusion of flowable increased thickness portions, and also to reduce the width of the flange-like increased thickness portions. In this known method, the compact rolling stand group immediately following the edging stand could be partially utilized for the reducing deformation of the preliminary section, for example, for acting on and shaping the flanges of this preliminary section.
When the known method was carried out it was found to have the disadvantage that the compact rolling stand group was not available for a finish rolling procedure during the reducing rolling of the preliminary section, so that the total output of the plant achievable with the method was limited.